Text/Li Jian, Contributing Writer of CC Intelligence Bureau of Phoenix.com
Key Takeaways:
1. On April 30, British pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca finally admitted for the first time in a legal document submitted to the High Court that its Covid vaccine "may cause TTS", that is, fatal blood clots, in rare cases. Previously, data from the UK's medicines regulator showed that at least 81 people died from thrombotic complications related to the vaccine out of 50 million doses of AstraZeneca vaccination. So far, more than 50 cases and 81 family members have filed lawsuits against AstraZeneca.
2. In December 2020, the AstraZeneca vaccine was developed by scientists at the University of Oxford and received accelerated testing and emergency use authorization in the UK. When the vaccine was in phase 3 clinical trials in the UK, the data were questioned because the first dose was used incorrectly. Studies have found that in addition to causing "vaccine-induced thrombotic thrombocytopenia", the AstraZeneca vaccine can also cause another fatal side effect: Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS). Given the risk of death from the vaccine's side effects, many countries have announced a moratorium on the vaccine.
3. In June 2021, despite the suspension imposed by other countries and regions, Taiwan still received the AstraZeneca vaccine "transferred" by Japan. According to the "China Times", Kuomintang "legislator" Chen Yixin provided a newly released statistical data showing that since the start of the AstraZeneca vaccine donated by Japan, 342 people in Taiwan have unfortunately died, which may be the region with the most deaths caused by the vaccine at present.
81 AstraZeneca vaccine victims claim £125 million, vaccine giant admits rare fatal side effects for the first time!
Neil Miller, a 50-year-old British man who is a father of two and coach of a youth football team and in good health, died on May 1, 2021, after receiving the Oxford–AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine in March 2021, when he began to develop flu-like symptoms that worsened.
His death certificate shows that he died of vaccine-induced immune thrombosis and thrombocytopenia (VITT).
His widow, Mrs. Miller, received £120,000 through the UK government's Vaccine Damage Scheme (VDPS), which provides a lump sum compensation for people injured by the vaccine or close relatives who have lost a loved one.
However, she said it was not enough to compensate for the impact of his death.
In November 2023, she sued AstraZeneca on behalf of her deceased husband, filing a huge claim against the Anglo-Swiss pharmaceutical giant.
According to the BBC, Mrs. Miller is one of more than 80 claimants who have filed legal proceedings in the High Court for what they believe is a rare side effect of the AstraZeneca vaccine that has caused the death or injury of themselves or their families.
Scott, 44, is the appellant in the first claim case concerning the AstraZeneca vaccine, who was diagnosed with TTS after being diagnosed with cerebral thrombosis and cerebral hemorrhage after receiving the AstraZeneca vaccine in April 2021.
After surgery and more than a month in a coma, Scott survived, but was left with permanent brain damage, difficulty reading, writing, listening, and partial blindness in both eyes.
These sequelae have seriously affected his daily life. Although Scott saved his life and was also compensated £120,000 by the government, he believes that AstraZeneca is responsible for the loss of his health. This is especially true when they may have known about the possibility of "thrombotic hypocythemia syndrome" and are still rolling out this "defective" vaccine globally.
According to the UK's Medicines Regulator, at least 81 people have died from thrombotic complications associated with the vaccine in 50 million doses of AstraZeneca vaccination.
AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine was first approved for emergency vaccination in December 2020. According to calculations, the chance of developing TTS in a person who receives the vaccine is about 1 in 50,000.
And that's just the UK statistic.
So far, more than 50 lawsuits have been filed against the company by the families of 81 people, with a total value of £125 million.
In an early statement, AstraZeneca expressed sympathy for all those suffering from health problems as a result of the vaccine, but also stressed that its vaccines are generally safe based on extensive clinical trials and real-world use data. The benefits of vaccination outweigh the extremely rare risks it may pose.
AstraZeneca also said its vaccines have saved about 6 million lives globally.
But these appellants do not agree with them.
After several rounds of court tug-of-war, on April 30, the Cambridge-based pharmaceutical giant finally admitted for the first time in a legal document before the High Court that its vaccine "may cause TTS", or fatal blood clots, in rare cases.
TTS is short for Thrombotic and Thrombocytopenia Syndrome, a rare condition that manifests as a blood clot (the formation of blood clots in blood vessels) and a decrease in the number of platelets in the body.
Platelets are small cells in the blood that help wounds heal, and when their number decreases, they can cause bleeding problems. It often leads to kidney, heart, and brain dysfunction.
TTS, a complication, is listed as a potential side effect of vaccination and was previously referred to as "vaccine-induced immune thrombocytopenia" (VITT).
The BBC noted that AstraZeneca's acknowledgment of the side effects of the vaccine could help the claimant obtain compensation. Previously, all 81 people received £120,000 in government compensation from the British government. If AstraZeneca loses the lawsuit, the amount of compensation to be paid is as high as 1.2 billion yuan.
AstraZeneca is the second largest listed company in the UK, with a market capitalisation of over £17 billion. It is not possible to predict whether the 81 people in the UK will trigger a global tsunami of claims if the claim is successful.
The fatal side effects of the AstraZeneca vaccine led to the discovery and naming of a new human disease: "vaccine-induced thrombotic thrombocytopenia"
In December 2020, the AstraZeneca vaccine was developed by scientists at the University of Oxford, and was granted accelerated testing and emergency use authorization in the UK during the pandemic.
The vaccine requires two doses, and data from a Phase 3 clinical trial in the UK were questioned for the misuse of the first dose. However, the vaccine was still approved by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) and other medical institutions around the world on January 30, 2021, and was approved for emergency use listing by the WHO.
As of January 2022, more than 2 billion doses have been administered in more than 170 countries and territories around the world. The AstraZeneca vaccine was the first to be approved and is the one with the largest number of orders.
However, the AstraZeneca vaccine, which uses chimpanzee adenovirus vectors, has been creating unexpected "scares" since it was approved in Europe.
Following the discovery of nearly 164 cases of blood clots and 19 deaths in Europe, the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) urgently published a very important study on April 10, 2021, in which researchers from Germany and Austria analyzed cases of rare blood clots after receiving the AstraZeneca vaccine and found some other unusual features, such as thrombocytopenia and "diffuse intravascular hemolysis" in these patients.
Further laboratory tests revealed that these patients had a rare antiplatelet antibody that could bind to a special component of platelets called "PF4", and after binding, it could not only cause thrombocytopenia, but also activate the function of platelets, leading to thrombosis.
This platelet antibody causes blood clots, which is very similar to a known condition called heparin-induced thrombocytopenia.
Now that this fatal side effect can also occur after AstraZeneca vaccination, a new name has been given to the disease - "vaccine-induced thrombotic thrombocytopenia"
Although the probability of the disease appearing is extremely low, if it does, it can have a devastating impact on the vaccinated. In addition, in the face of this vaccine-induced thrombotic thrombocytopenia, clinicians will also face a great treatment dilemma, such as heparin, a conventional drug for anticoagulation therapy, which may aggravate the patient's intracerebral hemorrhage.
In addition to causing "vaccine-induced thrombotic thrombocytopenia", the AstraZeneca vaccine can cause another fatal side effect: Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS).
Ross Wightman of British Columbia, Canada, reportedly experienced unbearable back pain after receiving his first dose of the AstraZeneca (AZ) vaccine on April 4, 2021. Unable to walk, paralyzed lower limbs. He spent two months in the hospital and was diagnosed with Guillain-Barré Syndrome (GBS).
On May 20, 2022, Canada's Vaccine Injury Support Program (VISP) confirmed that his condition was most likely caused by the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine. He will receive a large amount of compensation from the government for this.
According to Health Canada, 10 patients were hospitalized with GBS within 30 days of receiving the COVID-19 vaccine.
Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) is a rare condition in which the body's immune system damages nerves. Nerve damage leads to muscle weakness and sometimes paralysis.
The fatal flaw of the AstraZeneca vaccine has caused people trouble.
In less than four months after its launch, a total of 34 million cases of AstraZeneca's adenovirus vaccine and 164 cases of CVST cerebral thrombosis have been administered in Europe, including 19 deaths.
Subsequently, more than 20 countries and regions, including European countries, the United Kingdom, and South Africa, successively announced the suspension of AstraZeneca vaccination.
On April 14, 2021, NEJM urgently published a bombshell newsletter from the University of Nebraska Medical Center UNMC, reporting for the first time that the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, which uses the same adenovirus vector vaccine as AstraZeneca, caused six blood clots and one death in the United States.
In May, the US CDC announced an emergency suspension of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, followed by South Africa, the European Union and the United Kingdom, which also announced the suspension of Johnson & Johnson, the second adenovirus vector vaccine after the AstraZeneca vaccine.
Hundreds of people around the world have died from this injection, and 342 people have died in this part of the continent?
Despite the controversy surrounding AstraZeneca, it is still in short supply for other countries and regions that lack vaccines.
Concerned about the risk of blood clots from the AstraZeneca vaccine, in October 2021, the Hong Kong SAR Government donated 7.5 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine procured earlier to 92 low-income and lower-middle-income countries and regions through the COVAX Vaccine.
The Macau SAR government announced the suspension of the introduction of the AstraZeneca vaccine ordered earlier.
▎According to the data of the "Notification of Adverse Events after COVID-19 Vaccination" released by the Ministry of Health and Epidemic Prevention of Taiwan on October 7, 2021, the number of deaths reported after vaccination with AZ vaccine is the highest, reaching 644, the number of deaths reported after vaccination with Moderna vaccine is 183, and the number of deaths after vaccination with Taiwan's self-produced "high-end" vaccine is 22.
On June 2, 2021, despite the suspension measures introduced by other countries and regions, Taiwan still received 1.24 million doses of AstraZeneca vaccine from Japan due to concerns about the side effects of blood clots of the AstraZeneca vaccine.
According to reports, on June 21, six days after the AstraZeneca vaccine donated by Japan, the number of deaths after receiving the AstraZeneca vaccine in Taiwan reached 82.
On July 9, 2021, according to the China Times, a newly released statistics provided by Kuomintang "legislator" Chen Yixin said that since the start of the AstraZeneca vaccine donated by Japan on June 15, 342 people in Taiwan have unfortunately died, making the death notification rate climb to 295 per million.
At the same time, the cause of death in many cases is still difficult to determine, and more family members voluntarily abandon the autopsy investigation because they do not want to harm the body again out of self-blame.
Taiwan's epidemic prevention headquarters has identified a small number of elderly people who died after receiving the AstraZeneca vaccine, "may not be able to prove that they died because of the vaccine."
Taiwan is probably the region that currently causes the most deaths from the side effects of the AstraZeneca vaccine.
The more than 50 AstraZeneca class action lawsuits filed by the UK have also aroused the attention of the people in Taiwan, but no victims' families have filed a claim motion.
May vaccine safety be more important than Mount Tai.